Whether you’re politically liberal or conservative, you may have been born that way

Tuesday

Feb 26, 2013 at 6:05 PM

Jon Green throws the SPOTLIGHT on genetic influences in the formulation of people’s political attitudes:

It would be silly to think of newborn babies’ brains as being a blank slate. The preponderance of biological research has shown that differences in our genes play a large role in our personality. But certainly our political opinions are formed some time after we’re born, since we need some actual political information before we can develop political attitudes, right?

Well, kinda.

Numerous studies have shown that monozygotic (identical) twins are more likely than dizygotic (fraternal) twins to hold similar political opinions and exhibit similar ...

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Pat Cunningham

Jon Green throws the SPOTLIGHT on genetic influences in the formulation of people’s political attitudes:

It would be silly to think of newborn babies’ brains as being a blank slate. The preponderance of biological research has shown that differences in our genes play a large role in our personality. But certainly our political opinions are formed some time after we’re born, since we need some actual political information before we can develop political attitudes, right?

Well, kinda.

Numerous studies have shown that monozygotic (identical) twins are more likely than dizygotic (fraternal) twins to hold similar political opinions and exhibit similar ...